Fred Thompson seized every opportunity.

Well, I was just reading over at fred08.com, and I found this particular article very interesting.

It is amazing to me how so many things could just "fall into place" like that. And it is even more amazing to me how many people have the same chances, but never grab hold of them, and really take off.

"As a young lawyer in the 1970s, Thompson took up Marie Ragghianti's lawsuit against Tennessee's governor, and won her reinstatement to her job and back pay. The story became a book; the book became a movie; the movie launched Thompson's acting career; the actor's profile helped Thompson win a seat in the U.S. Senate.

...

GOP connections led Thompson to Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker, who in turn led Thompson to Watergate. Six years out of law school, at age 30, Thompson was chosen by Baker to became minority counsel on the Senate's special committee established to investigate the famous break-in.

...

With his GOP connections, he joined the U.S. attorney's office as a prosecutor for three years, then helped to manage Baker's 1972 re-election campaign. When the senator became vice chairman of the Watergate committee a year later, he picked Thompson as Republican counsel.

President Nixon couldn't have been more underwhelmed by Thompson.

"That kid," Nixon called him. "Dumb as hell."

"Well, we're stuck with him," H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, harrumphed.

Baker told Nixon: "He's tough. He's 6 feet 5 inches, a big mean fella."

Thompson, an administration loyalist, gradually realized Nixon might be lying."

I find his ability to take on people from both parties to be a good indicator that he will do what he thinks is right, regardless of whether they are republican or democrat.

He seems to have weathered anything that has been sent at him.

• Getting his girlfriend pregnant at 16, in a time when that was very frowned upon, especially in the Christian conservative movement, and could have caused republicans to frown on him.
  

• Nixon calling him names - kinda stupid and childish, but if he hadn't been on the winning side he probably would have kissed his political career "bye-bye".

• Going to Hollywood. This can seriously change someone, and it is really hard to keep your identity in that environment. You don't believe me? See what happened to Michael Jackson, Lindsay Lohan, the Olson twins, and many, many more. They all started out as cute, nice little children, and ended up being very problem-prone people, more so even than people who went to Hollywood as adults.

Fred Thompson has been tested on a large range of subjects, and, from from what I have sen so far it appears he has passed every challenge with flying colors.


And now for two final quotes:

"I don't do frenetic well" and "I've done pretty well being me, and me is all they're going to get."

Amen and thank you for just being you. So many people are willing to sacrifice to many things to accomplish something. Accomplishing something good in a wrong way is not the same as accomplishing something good the correct way!

I'm off to watch him on meet the press, see you later :)